The tow truck packed the slushy snow down as Jo navigated the back road. Turning the wheel, she turned onto another dirt road that was barely visible, low hanging trees scraping the roof of the truck. No one in town came in this direction, unless they were hunting game or scouting out a location to grow their pot plants.

“Damn,” Jo swore out loud when an overgrown brush scraped the paint on the side of her truck.

A quarter of a mile farther ahead, the road widened into a clearing. Bringing the truck to a stop, she waited as the late afternoon sunlight turned to dusk. She should have gone home to change into her coveralls before coming to the scheduled meeting.

Rachel and Cash had arrived back home late, apologizing for the delay by saying they spent too long talking to Tate and Sutton when they had picked up Ema. Jo had waved off their apologies, not wanting to miss her meeting.

Feeling grouchy that she could have taken her time and gone home to change, she was about to reach for her phone to send a text when she saw headlights in her rearview mirror.

The blue car went around her tow truck, the driver pulling alongside her.

Rolling her window down, she waited for the woman in the car to do the same thing.

“I was about to leave. You were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago,” Jo vented, glancing at her watch to confirm how late it was.

“Willa came into the store as I was closing my register. She wanted to give me advice on what I should and shouldn’t do when I go out with Rider tonight.” Aly rolled her eyes heavenward.

“I guess being late for your date wasn’t one of them.” Jo settled back on her seat, resting her arm on the door.

“It was weird as hell. I know without a doubt the advice she gave would irritate Rider, like I haven’t already figured him out since hanging out there. If I hadn’t heard The Last Riders were trying to hook you up with him, I would have fallen for it. Kind of made me disappointed in Willa, her being a Christian and all.”

Jo’s lips tightened at Aly’s sarcasm.

“Willa is a Christian. You should get off your couch sometime. You would see her working late at night, fixing lunch bags for the school children for the weekends, or—”

“Okay, I know you like Willa, so I’ll keep my mouth shut.”

“Please, that would be great.”

“I thought you would be in a better mood after your date with Rider last night. How did it go?”

“Fine. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I think we should come up with another plan … I don’t feel comfortable doing this anymore. I didn’t want to do it in the first place, and now that I spent a little time with him, I think we’re making a big mistake.”

“We’re sticking to the plan. It’s working. Why would we change it now?”

“I’m getting a terrible feeling that Rider isn’t the man we think he is. He’s creeping me out.”

“Rider is creeping you out? What did he do?”

“He hasn’t done anything creepy.” Jo tried to think of a way to explain the vibe that Rider was more dangerous than they believed him to be. “Something isn’t right. I’m afraid Rider’s not as easygoing as he pretends to be.”

“Rider couldn’t act his way out of a paper bag. He has his mind on two things: sex and food. As long as he has a steady amount of both, he’s an open book.”

“I think you’re wrong,” Jo argued.

“I’m the one who would know. I’ve been learning everything about him since I started going to the club with Moon. All I have to do is talk about shoes and my discount, and they tell me anything I want to know about him. I don’t care that you’re getting cold feet. The only way we’re going to get even with Curt is by making it personal with The Last Riders. That will get them to take care of our problems. Anyone who makes the mistake of fucking with one of The Last Riders’ women disappears or dies with a bullet between their eyes.”

“That’s gossip. If it could be proven, they would be locked away in jail.”

“Yeah.” Scorn filled her voice and face. “We know how well the judicial system has worked for us. I know Curt is responsible for my parents’ deaths. If the only justice I can get is to get The Last Riders to avenge their deaths, I’ll take it.”

“You know Curt is responsible without a doubt?”

“My parents were scared of Curt. He was trying to get them to sell their property to him. A week later, they’re both dead. The coroner didn’t find a medical reason for my father to go over that hill. I know Curt did it. Just like I know he raped you. I don’t have any proof of that either, but I believe you,” she said reasonably, as if Curt’s death shouldn’t bother her.

It did.

As much as she hated and despised him, she didn’t want him murdered because she had lured Rider into committing the crime. She might not be the one to pull the trigger, but she would be the one to put the gun in his hand, unless she could talk Aly out of the plan they had devised.

“How many people does Curt have to destroy before he’s stopped? Besides, we don’t know if Rider would be the one to do it. It could be Shade, Viper, Moon, or the one who stays in his room. That could be why he stays out of sight when I go to the club.”

“You don’t know who he is?”

“No, and when I try to get the women to talk about him, they quit talking or leave the room, which is why I quit asking. So far, I’ve been able to get out of fucking any of them by keeping the women occupied with things I bring from the store. I’ve been hiding under their radar, so I don’t want to alert the men that I’m not there to be a member. I’m on borrowed time as it is.”

“No one has become suspicious yet?”

“Jewell has. That’s why I bid on Rider. She keeps her eagle eyes on him. I knew she would be upset that Rider bid that much for you, so I didn’t set her radar off. I was right, too, from what you texted me. She didn’t tell Rider about your message. She wanted to jack up your date. Hopefully, I can mislead her that our date goes well enough that she’ll worry about me more than you.”

“If it goes well, you won’t need me anymore. I never wanted to do this anyway. I’ll pay back the money my father borrowed from your parents. I only need a little time—”

“There’s not enough time in the world to pay back the money your father borrowed. Rider will never fall for me. He hasn’t fallen for any of the women at the club. You’re the type of woman The Last Riders fall for. They just fuck women like me.”

“According to you, they haven’t.”

“That’s only because they’re trying me out to see if I can keep my mouth shut before asking me to become one of their women members. Shade gave me another foot in the door when he asked me to discount the clothes you picked and paid the difference.”

“I still don’t understand how he knew I would go in there to shop.”

“He led you there with those flyers. I bet he gave Lily the suggestion. It was like leaving scraps for a starving dog with a bear trap at the end.”

“Thanks a lot. I really don’t like being compared to a hungry dog,” Jo said before trying another tactic. “I’ll sign over my property and truck to you.”

“Shade has a lean on your truck, and that land is more of a landfill than a property. Your house needs to be bulldozed, which is why you don’t try to fix anything.” Aly gave a long-suffering sigh. “Help me, and I will tear up the note your father gave mine. I’ll even pay off your truck. You’ll be debt free.”

Jo stared back at her. Aly wasn’t going to change her mind. She had no choice other than to warn Rider or Curt about Aly. After last night, she just couldn’t bring herself to warn Curt. Plus, it would set his target on Aly. She was becoming just as afraid of Rider, but in another way.

Curt was dangerous but, deep down, she felt like she could handle him. He wouldn’t be dealing with a fifteen-year-old girl now. Rider, however, brought the fine hairs on her arms standing. When she had seen him around town, he had done nothing to raise her fears that he was as lethal as her instincts were screaming he was. Could it be a guilty conscience? Was she making more of the feelings he was invoking than they really were?

“I don’t have any other alternative. We should go to Knox and—”

“I’ve been to Knox. He told me to wait for the state police to issue their final accident report. When it came back accidental as the cause, he said his hands were tied. His might be, but mine aren’t.”

Her last resort squashed, Jo had no other suggestions that would change Aly’s plan. Truthfully, she did believe Curt had something to do with her parents’ deaths. He had made an offer to Aly for her parents’ land before their caskets could be lowered into the ground. Two other offers had been made, each with a higher amount.

The property sat alone, without any homes nearby. Aly and she had discussed why Curt would want the property so badly, yet neither of them could up with one that would get Knox to take Aly’s fears seriously.

“There’s no need to stay here talking if I’m not able to change your mind. You don’t want to keep Rider waiting.” Jo’s fingers went to the button to raise the window.

“I’ve been looking forward to it. If he gets away with killing Curt for us, I might have a change of heart about joining The Last Riders.”

“You’d seriously consider having sex for votes to belong?”

“I’ve always had a soft spot for bad boys. The hard thing would be deciding which six.”

Jo couldn’t bring herself to have sex with one, much less six.

“I know which one I would pick—the door.”

Aly’s nose crinkled. “I can tell from your expression you haven’t ever fantasized about being with two men.”

“No, and certainly not letting six different men touch me just to get voted to become a Last Rider.”

“Ember may have been giving me false information to see if I say anything to anyone in town. I’ve only been there a few times. We will see.”

“We won’t. You will. Trying to get Rider to fall in love with me is as far as I plan to go. I’m sick at myself that I agreed to that. If I had known what you wanted when you showed up at my door, I wouldn’t have answered.”

“You’d rather let Curt get away with murder?”

“I’d rather we didn’t have to pretend that I didn’t know you were back in town. Then Knox would have figured out what we were doing, and it would take this plan out of my hands.”

“I made my mind that, if you didn’t help, I was going to take you to court to get my father’s money back. He shouldn’t have lent it to your dad in the first place. It was too easy for him to use the money for his drinking and keep that lost cause of a business going.”

Each of Aly’s harsh words was like having a stake driven into her heart.

“You’ve changed since we went to school together.”

“Having your parents murdered will do that to you.”

Jo grimaced as she pictured the scenario in her head. She hadn’t been pushed to the edge by her rape, or Curt’s breaking into her house. She didn’t know how she would react if she thought he was responsible for the death of someone she loved.

She was going to have to see how her future date with Rider played out. He could lose interest just as quickly as it had developed, giving her a way out of the mess she had found herself in. Other than the auction, she hadn’t done anything that could make herself attractive to him.

Jo felt as if a coin had been flipped into the air, and her conscience depended on where it landed. If Rider fell in love with her, she would have Curt’s death on her shoulders. If he didn’t, Aly would have to admit she had tried and it was no fault of hers, and allow her to make payments on her father’s debt.

She sat on the lonely road long after Aly had left. The road ahead enticed her to take her anywhere but Treepoint.

“Just leave.”

The empty silence offered no pearls of wisdom, leaving the choice to her.

Starting the engine, she drove up the winding road.

“Leave.” Again, Jo spoke out loud, inwardly knowing she wouldn’t. She had run once before; she wasn’t going to do it again. Whichever way the imaginary coin she had flipped landed, she would be in Treepoint. It was the only place her heart yearned to be. For all its disadvantages, it was home.